What does πειθαρχέω (peitharchéō) mean in the Bible?
πειθαρχέω (peitharchéō): Obey someone in authority; specifically submission to rulers, officials, or God's command.
Greek · G3980
πειθαρχέω
To obey
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πειθαρχέω G3980
Pronunciation peitharchéō
What does πειθαρχέω (peitharchéō) mean in the Bible?
πειθαρχέω (peitharchéō): Obey someone in authority; specifically submission to rulers, officials, or God's command.
Full entry for πειθαρχέω (G3980) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3980?
The BSB source-word alignment has 4 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include followed my advice (1), obey (1), to be obedient (1), We must obey (1).
Where does πειθαρχέω (peitharchéō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 5:29. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (3), Titus (1).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It followed my advice 1× Acts 27:21
obey 1× Acts 5:32
to be obedient 1× Titus 3:1
We must obey 1× Acts 5:29
Show sample aligned rows
Acts 5:29 Πειθαρχεῖν to We must obey Verb - Present Infinitive Active Acts 5:32 πειθαρχοῦσιν to obey Verb - Present Participle Active - Dative Masculine Plural Acts 27:21 πειθαρχήσαντάς to followed my advice Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Accusative Masculine Plural Titus 3:1 πειθαρχεῖν to to be obedient Verb - Present Infinitive Active
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Acts 5:29
Aligned rows 4
Books represented 2
Acts 3 Titus 1
Source forms
πειθαρχεῖν 1x peitharchein Titus 3:1
Πειθαρχεῖν 1x Peitharchein Acts 5:29
πειθαρχήσαντάς 1x peitharchēsantas Acts 27:21
πειθαρχοῦσιν 1x peitharchousin Acts 5:32
Parsing patterns
Verb - Present Infinitive Active 2x Acts 5:29, Titus 3:1
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Accusative Masculine Plural 1x Acts 27:21
Verb - Present Participle Active - Dative Masculine Plural 1x Acts 5:32
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Obey someone in authority; specifically submission to rulers, officials, or God's command.
Strong's G3980
Lexical occurrences 4 verses Greek text appearances 4 times Word forms 2 forms 4 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Acts 5:27-42 Source Gloss
to obey
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Obey someone in authority; specifically submission to rulers, officials, or God's command.
(πείθομαι, ἀρχή) [in LXX: Dan LXX 7:27 (שְׁמַע), Sir.33:28, I Est.8:94 * ;] to obey one in authority, be obedient: Tit.3:1; with dative, Act.27:21; θεῷ, Act.5:29, 32.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Acts 5:29 Verb Present Active Infinitive
Πειθαρχεῖν peiqarcein
I obey one in authority
Read verse Acts 5:32 Verb Present Active Participle Dative Plural Masculine
πειθαρχοῦσιν peiqarcousin
I obey one in authority
Read verse Acts 27:21 Verb Aorist Active Participle Accusative Plural Masculine
πειθαρχήσαντάς peiqarchsantav
I obey one in authority
Read verse Titus 3:1 Verb Present Active Infinitive
πειθαρχεῖν, peiqarcein
I obey one in authority
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Form groups 2 Aligned forms 4 Tenses Present, Aorist Voices Active
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Infinitive verbal noun — the action in abstract 2×
Present Active Acts 5:29 · Titus 3:1 2×
Participle verbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality 2×
Present Active Acts 5:32 1×
Aorist Active Acts 27:21 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 4 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
present 3 aorist 1
Voice
active 4
Mood
infinitive 2 participle 2
NT Occurrences
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
To obey one in authority.
Showing 1 selected witness from 4 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
πειθαρχέω is built from these roots:
Why This Word Matters
The apostles assert that divine authority supersedes human command. Acts 5:27-42
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain